The Eating Challenge, Take 2

Intuitive eating is knowing that what you need for energy and health is what you want to eat. It takes courage to maintain your intuitive connection through challenging eating situations.

You may need to eat bread with your meal, or protein, or you may just feel like having yogurt. You may decide that you had such a big lunch that you will just have an appetizer for dinner. Sounds simple, but it takes courage. Courage is when you recognize what you know, and you respect who you are. Courage is following through with what you know and doing what you respect.

Words make it sound easy, sure. Doing what sounds easy just may surprise you. The real eating challenge is to trust yourself to be good to yourself. 

Challenging eating situations happen every day. We feel tempted or starved, or like there is no choice, or like pleasing others. The challenge to be true to physical needs, while feeling pressure from stress or from exhaustion is often the result of not trusting what you intuitively know your body needs.

Take the eating challenge and observe yourself around food. Use your eyes, your ears, taste, touch and smell. Notice messages from your stomach and notice how you feel in your heart and your head. Fine tune your senses. Listen to your intuition, and recognize habits that end up making you feel badly about your self. When it is time to eat, use your senses to smell, taste and see what you are eating and think about how your body feels and what you want for your self. Give your self a chance.

Intuition is a kind of natural courage. Connect with your intuition, and eat only what you know and feel is right. When you tune into your body, and your hunger with courage, you start to recognize your eating needs. Then you trust your self and take control of feeding your hunger. This is not easy because it's probably not something that you thought about before. So, give yourself a chance to think. Take a deep breathe in and now breathe out really, really slowly until there is nothing inside. Good.

It takes courage to recognize and trust your self.

It takes courage to stand up for your self.

It takes courage do what is right.

It takes courage to acknowledge what you need.

It takes courage to recognize habits, but if you don’t, you will never be happy with your weight. Ignoring your senses, your body, and what you know, creates a vicious cycle when you eat, and all it takes to stop, is connecting with the courage to follow your truth.  Ah yes, that is the eating challenge.

 

Wanting the love.

Everybody knows "food is love." Everybody intuitively wants love. That's why, at a celebration, where food is abundant, it's common to overeat. 

It's not surprising at Thanksgiving, a holiday of appreciation and feasting, to discover that you feel stuffed, instead of comfortably full. Maybe the sweet potatoes with marsh mellows were better than you remembered, and the vision, you intended, of portion control didn't work. Stuff happens, and it's okay. What really matters, is that you are aware of what happened that didn't make you feel good about your self, and that you commit to be kinder to your self next time. 

Don't beat yourself up. 

It is intuitive to forgive your self, because forgiving your self is a sign of self respect. Doing this will help you automatically be more prudent about eating choices over the rest of the holiday season. It is human nature to fall down, and it is intuitive to get back up and to keep going.

Because intuitive eating is having a flexible approach, post Thanksgiving is the time to cut your self a little slack. At holiday meals, the natural focus is on socializing. However, your intuition still is there. You are changing the way you want to maintain your optimum weight. Since you've already started being aware of your body, and of messages from your 6 senses, intuition is automatically part of  your food choices.

Intuitively: You take control of your eating by staying connected to what is really important to you, which is the way you feel, and the way you look.

Intuition is not something that you force on your self. Instead intuitive eating is a way of trusting your self to eat what's in your best interest for your optimum health - even when you're "socializing."

Stay committed to intuitive eating by choosing to forgive a holiday slip up, and try to maintain more vigilance the next time spirits are merry. Everything worth achieving takes time and effort - including getting the habit of being an intuitive eater.

Enjoy the holiday and enjoy eating. You deserve the love.<3

 

Guts, Balls, Nerve.. The Intuitive Diet

Guts, balls, nerve, boldness, confidence, all signal courage. These are inside you, and connect with your 6th sense and your intuitive diet.

Until you fine tune  and respect your senses, 

the simplest things like eating for health and energy seem like the hardest.  

Until you smell your food, you will not taste it. 

Until you see what’s on your plate, you will eat anything. 

Until you can feel your stomach, you won’t know if you are hungry or not. 

All of this is simple. But to change bad habits is not easy. 

Being true to your self- while obviously a most valuable and awesome habit, takes courage.

Courage is a big word that we throw around. We are not in the habit of thinking about courage when we think about our self, so I will talk about it a lot, because it’s a lot to swallow. Courage is an energy you are born with. But when you focus on negative thoughts around eating, you are in the habit of ignoring your courage. This is self-sabotage.

What is courage?
Courage is the choice to eat what you intuitively feel is right, despite what others say. It’s something that you use to be true to your whole self as an intuitive eater.  It takes courage to trust your self.

Why?
Because it's a kind of boldness. When you trust your self, you have the courage to think about how your body feels, what you are sensing, and what you know in your heart - before you make an eating decision.  

It takes courage to think about eating intuitively. So please realize- you are being bold as you read this. You are already connecting with your intuition, and it feels good to connect.

The magic thing about courage is that it opens doors. It opens doors to your dreams. Turn the knob, and trust your courage. Walk through the door and you will wonder why it was so hard. That’s life, isn’t it – full of surprise and wonder.

The first step of using courage, with your self as an intuitive eater, is to be willing to receive the messages from your 6 senses, and to be alert to what you feel in your body. Try it.

Eat with courage.

Are you a yo-yo?

Does your weight go up and down seemingly at the bite of a donut?
If you think eating is all about gaining or losing weight, think again. Gaining and losing weight can be the result of illness, abuse, or just mis-information. Most likely it is about not really knowing why you’re eating.

Why eat?
Food builds the foundation for your health, physically, and mentally. That is the reason to eat. What you eat today will power you tomorrow. The food you eat is the source of all of your energy. Without feeding your body for energy, it can be hard to get out of bed in the morning.

When you eat for energy and health, your body feels good. Some people tell me that when they eat for energy and health, it makes them feel sexy. This makes sense because, being physically comfortable with your self is key to enjoying other pleasures in your life. By eating intuitively, you respect your self and focus on eating what your body really needs. Using all of your senses, you won’t gain weight, instead if you need to lose weight, you will.

The beginning or intuitive eating is to suspend dis-belief generated by the habits of dieting, and use your 6 senses when you relate to food. Why not give yourself a chance to lose weight without feeling physically and emotionally bad?!  Fine tune your senses, and you will recognize that little voice, common sense.

Okay, back to that really tasty donut- Eat it intuitively. Look at it, smell it, feel it with your fingers, tongue, mouth and inside you.Make sure when you eat that donut, you are glad you did.
Be brave and be honest in your heart.

Lights are flashing!

Feed your ideal body.

Instead of rejecting your body which every dieter does out of habit, think about the real you.  Acknowledge what bugs you about your shape, and think about how you ideally see your body.  Give your body some love by seeing it as healthy, flexible, and attractive. The way to show love to your body is to trust it.

Trust that by fine tuning your senses and connecting with your hunger and your appetites, your body will  adjust to become your ideal self-image. Appreciate your self and your efforts.  Work with the messages from your body. Let your intuition guide you.

Sounds obvious, but it isn’t.  Sounds like a given, but it’s so taken for granted we ignore trusting our inner self! We do it the same way we ignore what we see, hear, or feel.  We ignore our heart the same way we ignore our body when we eat.  We’re a mess!

Lights are flashing, gongs are banging, and we eat destructively.  Why? Because we don’t pay attention to our body, and we ignore the insights we’re getting 24/7 from our six senses.

Use your intuition to balance your eyes with your heart and mind. You will see your real potential